Ralph Nader on War & Peace

2004 Reform nominee; 2000 Green Candidate for President

Responsible six-month withdrawal from Iraq occupation

We want to have a responsible six-month withdrawal of the US military and corporate occupation, and an internationally supervised election, so that the Iraqi people don't feel that they're facing a permanent military occupation and the control
of their oil resources and of public government. If they feel that, the majority of the Iraqis are going to support the insurgency. They're not going to distance themselves from the insurgency.

Source: NPR, "Justice Talking" Dean-Nader Debate
Jul 9, 2004

Impeach Bush & Cheney for 5 falsehoods on Iraq war

Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, would be [an impeachable offense. Nader lists 5 such] falsehoods that led to the Iraq quagmire:

Weapons of Mass Destruction:The weapons have still not been
found. After spending nearly half a billion dollars searching, David Kay told Bush, "We were wrong."

Iraq Ties to Al Qaeda: The White House made this claim even though the CIA and FBI repeatedly told the Administration that there was no tie

Bush is acting as a selected dictator

The war in Iraq was developed from a messianic militaristic determination turned by a closed mind, facilitated by a cowering Congress and opposition Democrat Party and undeterred by a probing press.
Bush is acting in effect as a selected dictator, [and is] not listening to any of the many retired admirals, generals and foreign-policy experts who have warned against the war.

US oil companies & Bush Admin eye Iraqi oil

National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice is a former director of Chevron. Bush took more than $1.8 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries in the 2000 election. All told, 41 members of the administration had ties to the oil
industry. US oil companies, banned from Iraq for more than a decade, would like nothing more than to control the production of Iraqi oil. With reserves of 112.5 billion barrels, Iraq sits on top of 11% of the world's oil.

Source: In the Public Interest, "Ignoring the caution signs"
Feb 14, 2003

US deserves to know the influence of the oil industry

The American people have a right to know what role the oil industry is playing in Bush's increasingly frenetic drive to war. The American people also have a right to know what was discussed in the
numerous secret meetings Cheney's national energy task force held with oil and gas executives. Cheney has been adamantly secretive about these meetings, despite repeated attempts by Congress and public interest groups to learn what was discussed.

Source: In the Public Interest, "Ignoring the caution signs"
Feb 14, 2003

Americans don't believe in Bush on Iraq

In spite of polls (as well opinions expressed by military experts, like retired General Anthony Zinni) showing that a large majority of the American people do not believe that Bush has made the case that Iraq threatens the US nor do they want him to
commit our troops unilaterally, Bush is willing to spend at least $150 billion and incur casualties pursuing this obsession while ignoring life-saving needs in our country.

Source: In the Public Interest, "Overspending on the Military"
Jan 17, 2003

Palestinian statehood and security for Israel

Nader weighed in on the escalating tensions between the Israelis & the Palestinians. Due to his Lebanese ancestry, Nader had been dogged by occasional charges of anti-Semitism throughout his career, with whispers that Nader had an innate Arab bias. Never
mind that his forbears were Lebanese Christians, a group historically persecuted by Muslims. Furthermore, Nader's campaign position was thoroughly plain vanilla: "It's very simple. Palestinian statehood and security for Israel. Those are the two pivots."

Afghanistan: Bush burned down haystack to find needle

Taking issue with the war in Afghanistan, Nader said, "Bush burned down a haystack to try to find a couple of needles. He didn't find the needles, but there have been 1000s of innocent deaths." Nader says he would have organized a modest multinational
force and sent them into Afghanistan to arrest Osama bin Laden, a kind of police raid. Then he would have tried him at The Hague. "Sept. 11 was an international crime, a massacre," Nader said in 2002. "We should have gone forward with international law."

Wage peace and anticipate conflicts abroad

When to use American military power abroad? His would be a foreign policy that focused more energetically on preventing war, said Nader: “We’re not waging peace with rigorous energy, mediation, anticipating conflicts abroad.”

Source: Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe, page D1
Oct 8, 2000

Should have anticipated Yugoslav breakup by “waging peace”

Q: Your views on the Balkans and the bombing of Serbia?

A: Our foreign policy is often too little too late, and then too brutal. Everyone could foresee Yugoslavia deteriorating after Tito. We need a policy of “waging peace”
to anticipate problems. And we need a multilateral “peace force” ready to go.

Q: UN or NATO-US or what?

A: With heavy regional content depending on which continent.

Source: National Public Radio, “The Connection”
Jul 11, 2000

Forget “hot spots”; ask “How did we get into this?”

What’s really amazing is that any discussion of foreign policy is usually about current hot spots, instead of asking, how did we get into this situation in the first place? What could we have done to avoid it? For example, how many years did we prop up
the dictatorship of the former Belgian Congo? Now look how it’s all falling apart over there, right? Well, we had no preventive diplomacy, no preventive defense. It’s always, who’s in charge, and, go out and support then as long as they’re anticommunist.

Source: VoteNader.com: A Conversation with Robert Kuttner
Jun 25, 2000

Iraq: Trade sanctions strengthen Saddam

On trade sanctions against Iraq: “The way a dictator gets power is by convincing the people there is an enemy [as US trade sanctions have helped him do]. If Saddam
Hussein were in charge of American foreign policy towards Iraq, he would do exactly the same thing as we have.”

Bosnia: Force acceptable to help against mass slaughter

Q: Foreign policy, the Middle East, Bosnia: your general view in that area?

A: Well I think when there’s mass slaughter going on or about to go on, as in some countries, there should be a multinational expeditionary force to help those people.
Burundi is an example.

And second, I think we should be very careful about getting into foreign difficulties, because we’re protecting big business, investments like oil in the Persian Gulf, which led us into that whole morass to begin with.